Healing
by kisshuismylife
Summary: Kisshu's depressed over Ichigo, but she's got her reasons for rejecting him...


**Healing**

Pai and Taruto were worried. Kisshu was becoming more and more depressed due to Ichigo's rejections. He would spend days locked in his room, he wasn't talking to anyone, and he kept saying he wasn't hungry. That last one was the red flag for Pai. Kisshu was ALWAYS hungry. If he wasn't, something was seriously wrong.

Currently, Pai and Taruto were talking about the problem. Kisshu had locked himself in his room again. "Pai, what are we going to do?" Taruto asked. "The old hag hates Kisshu, so isn't it useless to bring her in?"

"Maybe, but I think she's the only one who can help him," Pai said. "I'm going." He teleported, and Taruto sighed.

Pai teleported to Ichigo's tree, and looked in her window. He saw her sitting on her bed, looking gloomy. Sighing, he teleported into her room, but she didn't look up; instead, she asked gloomily, "I suppose you're here to gloat?"

"I'm not Kisshu, and I have no clue why I should be gloating," Pai said dryly.

Ichigo looked up, startled, and asked warily, "Why are you here, Pai?"

"We need to chat," Pai said.

"Is this about Kisshu?" Ichigo asked.

"Yes," Pai replied. "I don't get what your problem is. Just because you love someone else doesn't mean you have to be that nasty to him."

Ichigo looked irritated, and asked, "You want to know what my problem is? Fine. My parents are never home long enough to care about me, Blondie thinks it's funny to make me miserable, my now-ex-boyfriend has a creepy habit of screwing trees, I'm tired all the time, I have no one to talk to besides my stuffed animals, and to top it all off, Kisshu thinks teasing me into oblivion and treating me like a worthless toy is FUNNY. My life is an absolute wreck, and you seriously expect me to just smile at people who think I'm a toy and say, "Oh, it's fine."? I'm going insane, and while it's mainly Blondie's fault, Kisshu isn't exactly blameless either. And neither are you. Do you have any idea what it's like calming Lettuce down after battles with YOU? If you're here to kill me for hurting Kisshu, I expect you to at the very least confess your love to Lettuce afterwards, or I'm going to come back from the grave and haunt you."

Pai was stunned by this little speech, but he still said, "Uh… I just came to ask you to come with me to get Kisshu back to normal…."

"Kisshu doesn't know the meaning of 'normal'," Ichigo said.

"Get him back to being himself?" Pai suggested.

"Mmph," Ichigo said. "How about a deal?"

"What is it?" Pai sighed.

"I help Kisshu, and you confess your love to Lettuce in return," Ichigo said.

"Alright," Pai said. "Let's go."

Ichigo sighed and put her shoes on, then got up, and Pai took her shoulder, then teleported.

They landed outside a door, and Pai knocked on it. "I already told you, I'm not hungry!" Kisshu's voice shouted.

"That's not why I'm here," Pai called back. "Open up."

"No," Kisshu said.

"Open up or I'll break the door down," Pai said irritably.

"With what?" Kisshu asked. "I reinforced it with steel; there's no way you can get in. And using your fans will get you electrocuted."

Pai looked at Ichigo, who said, "No way. I am NOT using my Strawberry Surprise attack on Kisshu's door. Why don't you try kicking it down?"

Pai glared at her, and she just snickered. "You and Kisshu were a match made in heaven; why don't you get that?" Pai asked irritably. "You're both little demons with absolutely no manners."

"I have manners!" Ichigo said indignantly. "Kisshu's the one with no manners!"

"I heard that!" Kisshu shouted. "I do too have manners! I just choose not to use them. And at least I don't eat like Taruto does!"

"Mmph," Pai said grouchily. "Are you going to open the door at some point?"

"Try the doorknob, baka," Kisshu said.

Pai tried the doorknob, and it opened. "This thing was open the whole time!?" he shouted. "Why didn't you tell me!?"

"I was trying to make you stub your toe again," Kisshu said, snickering. "The last time was priceless! Taruto even got some pictures."

"Grr…." Pai said. "I'll leave you two alone. Try not to kill each other."

"Where will you be?" Kisshu asked warily.

"Ichigo can tell you," Pai said, and teleported off. Ichigo sighed and went into Kisshu's room, closing the door behind her.

"So where was Pai going?" Kisshu asked. He was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling.

"He was going to confess his love to Lettuce," Ichigo said.

"About time," Kisshu said. "So why are you here?"

"I said that in return for Pai confessing his love to Lettuce, I would come help you," Ichigo said. "Pai claims you're pretty depressed."

"Ichigo, why do you hate me so much?" Kisshu asked.

"I don't hate you, I hate the way you treat me," Ichigo said. "If you didn't tease me and treat me like a worthless toy, we'd probably be together by now. My life is a complete wreck, and while it's mainly Blondie's fault, you're not exactly blameless either. Don't take it personally; I'm not big on Pai or Taruto either. But at least they don't think I'm worthless."

Kisshu moved so fast that Ichigo didn't notice until he was standing in front of her, his hands gripping her shoulders. "I don't think you're worthless," he said. "Whatever gave you that idea was dead wrong. What the HELL made you think I thought you were worthless?"

"Your toy comments," Ichigo said softly. "What I got from you calling me a toy is that you thought I was a toy- one that could be thrown aside when you got bored with it. And that made me feel worthless. I admit I should have said something rather than hurting you back, but I also assumed you'd see it as weakness if I told you how much you were hurting me."

She looked up as Kisshu released her shoulders, and saw that he looked horrified. He stumbled back, as if she had shoved him. "Kisshu?" Ichigo asked softly.

"I-" Kisshu started, but then shook his head and teleported.

Ichigo stood shocked for a moment, and then snapped out of it and shrieked telepathically,_ PAI!_

_What happened? _Pai sighed.

_I told Kisshu how I felt about the toy comments, and he teleported off somewhere! _Ichigo wailed.

There was silence on Pai's end for a minute, and then he said, _I'll go get him. Stay put. _He cut the connection, and Ichigo sighed.

Ten minutes later, Pai teleported in carrying Kisshu, who was unconscious. He gently set Kisshu down on the bed, and took his boots off before tucking him in. Then he looked at Ichigo and said telepathically, _He tried to kill himself. I need you to stay with him, and at least try to reassure him that you don't want him dead. I know you weren't trying to make things worse, but as it is, you're going to have to get him back to normal; there's not much I or anyone else can do for him now._

_Alright, _Ichigo said. She carefully climbed onto the bed with Kisshu, and gently started stroking his hair. He didn't seem to notice, but Ichigo kept stroking his hair as Pai left.

Three hours later, Kisshu started to stir, and Ichigo waited as he opened his eyes, then asked, "Kisshu?"

Kisshu flinched, puzzling Ichigo. She gently put a hand on his cheek, rubbing it with her thumb. He leaned into her hand, but didn't say anything. "Kisshu, are you okay?" Ichigo asked softly. "You're not getting sick, are you?"

"Does feeling guilty count?" Kisshu asked. "Because if it does, then I've come down with something life-threatening."

For some reason, his words sent a jolt of panic through Ichigo, and she grabbed his shoulders, pulling him into a sitting position and hugging him so tightly he almost couldn't breathe. She buried her face in Kisshu's shoulder as she said, "Please…. please don't die, Kisshu. I need you. Even if you don't need me anymore, I need you. So please…. don't die."

Kisshu was too stunned to respond, even just with a hug. He only snapped out of shock when Ichigo looked up at him, and shook him, saying, "Kisshu, please promise you're not going to die."

Kisshu looked at Ichigo, and saw that she looked really worried. He hugged her gently, and said, "I promise, I won't die. Not if you don't want me to."

"I never want you to die," Ichigo said.

Kisshu tightened his grip on her, and said, "I won't. I'll stay with you forever, okay?"

"'Kay…." Ichigo said, snuggling closer to him.

"Koneko-chan?" Kisshu asked after a while.

"Yeah Kisshu?" Ichigo asked.

"I'm sorry for teasing you and making you feel bad," Kisshu said. "I'll stop doing that."

"Thanks," Ichigo said. "I'm sorry for hurting you so much."

Kisshu smiled, but that faded when they heard teleportation. Taruto appeared looking panicked, and said urgently, "We've got to get out of here!"

"Why?" Kisshu asked.

"Pai's HUMMING!" Taruto shrieked, panicked. "The universe is going to end soon!"

"Relax, he's probably just happy because he and Lettuce are together," Kisshu said. "The universe is not going to end anytime soon. But if it's that scary, you can go spend the night with Pudding, okay?"

"I'm outta here!" Taruto said, and teleported.

"Pai humming sounds creepy," Ichigo commented.

"I was trying to keep it together for Taruto's sake," Kisshu said. "Something horrific is about to happen, I just know it! Every time Pai laughs, horrific things happen, like my friend getting ripped up by a rogue Chimera Anima. I hope him humming won't cause anything too horrific."

"Should we go back to my place?" Ichigo asked.

"Good plan," Kisshu said. He got his boots back on, and teleported Ichigo to her room. They found a gray kitten sitting on the floor, and Ichigo sighed. "You just can't leave me alone, can you?" she asked.

The kitten changed back into Ryou, and he snarled, "What are you doing with HIM, Ichigo?"

"Pai's apparently humming, so we came here to get away from imminent doom," Ichigo said. "And Kisshu's my boyfriend now. You do realize I was never going to fall for you, right?"

"You were supposed to," Ryou said.

"Did it ever occur to you that I have a mind of my own, and that you can't control my life?" Ichigo asked. "Just because you infused me with cat genes doesn't make me your slave. I don't think you get that, though, so to make it more clear, I'm quitting Café Mew Mew to spend more time with Kisshu and my school friends, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it that won't get you arrested or killed by me. Now get out of my house. Oh, and here's my pendant; I can transform without it anyways." She handed her pendant to Ryou, and said, "Get out."

"You can't mean that," Ryou said.

"Too bad, I do," Ichigo said. "I've had enough of you making my life miserable, so get out."

"But-" Ryou started, but Ichigo cut him off. She grabbed him by the collar and dragged him over to her window, then threw him out. Then she slammed her window shut and sighed.

"Wow…." Kisshu said.

Ichigo smiled and said, "Now that the annoyance is gone, should we kiss?"

Kisshu smirked and kissed her. She kissed back passionately, until they ran out of air. "Bedtime?" Kisshu asked, watching Ichigo yawn.

"Yup," Ichigo said. "Do you want to stay?"

"Sure!" Kisshu said. Ichigo went to change into pajamas, and when she came back, she and Kisshu climbed into her bed together. Ichigo snuggled against Kisshu and fell asleep, leaving him to wonder how ANYONE could fall asleep that fast. He put his arms around her, and slowly drifted off himself.

**I wanted to get something out tonight, so here's my little one-shot. I hope you liked it!**


End file.
